When your beloved indie hits the mainstream in a big way, every player wants a say in what you do next. That was certainly the case for Motion Twin, the developer behind Dead Cells, which has been a mainstay on our list of the best roguelike games since its release in 2018. But where other developers look to the safer bet of a sequel in order to maximize excitement (no shade intended, Supergiant. Transistor 2 next?), Motion Twin went down a different path.
“We are driven by what we want to make,” Yannick Berthier, co-creative director and game designer at Motion Twin, tells me during a recent interview. He explains that Motion Twin’s unique structure, where nearly every developer on the nine-person team is a partner in the company, allows them to make decisions with their hearts, rather than their heads.
“If we were a ‘business,’ we would be talking about Dead Cells 2 right now,” he explains. “We are not talking about Dead Cells 2. We are talking about Windblown, because we are a collective of individuals that are creative and want to create stuff.”
After so long working on Dead Cells, the team was ready for something new. The success of that game gave them the freedom to explore whatever they wanted to do: “a new universe, super bright, that could be co-op.” While Windblown was “too punishing” when it launched, the game’s early access journey has involved fan feedback at every turn and it’s in a far better place now.
If Motion Twin was a subsidiary of a larger company, or if it was beholden to shareholders, Berthier thinks the story might have been different. “[If] we would have been [part of] another company, maybe the pressure to do a sequel would have been way, way stronger – I mean, internally.
“Externally, it’s super strong. Every post we do, we tend to have a few comments like, ‘OK, cool, when Dead Cells 2?’ But it’s fine. That’s our reality.” He notes that this may not have been the most business-savvy decision, but the team of creatives went with its “heart” instead of its head.
A year into Windblown’s early access period, Berthier doesn’t regret the decision to forge a new path rather than retread the same steps for another shot at Dead Cells’ success. But the best thing about Motion Twin’s workers’ co-op is the freedom. The freedom to choose what you do next, no matter what a corporate executive may think. I’ll reiterate that I think this freedom only comes with the enormous success of its first game, but the developers at Motion Twin are enjoying a taste of something fresh.
“We can shape our future,” he says. “I wouldn’t say ‘decide’ it, because we’re a part of the real world […] but we can definitely influence or choose our strategy.”
That strategy is innovating and iterating, creating something new, detached from the Dead Cells name that brought them so much success and, when support for the game ended, so much controversy. Windblown has a long way to go if it wants to match Dead Cells’ runaway popularity, but if it allows the developers to make the game they want to make, who are we to argue with them?
Windblown is available in early access now. You can buy it on Steam here.
If you’d like more games like Dead Cells or Windblown, from developers happy to take creative risks, check out our list of the best indie games. The best soulslikes will also give you a taste of similarly brutal punishment.
Have you been playing Windblown? Let us know what you think in our community Discord server, where staff and readers make decisions with their hearts instead of their heads, too.
